Football game!

Wow, how much fun did we have last night! Good friends of our gave us tickets to the Rider game last night, 50 yard line, right down in front (or is that behind) of the team. It was a gift that was to help us be refreshed after all the stress of moving and renos... It was refreshing all right but maybe not the way it was intended! We knew there was a severe t-shower warning but figured it would hold off until after the game...Wrong! It rained and rained... Less than 3 minutes into the final quarter the game was called to a standstill by the severe weather. Those of us not seated in under the overhangs made our way inside to be crowded in where it was dry (but certainly not warm!) 55 minutes later the game resumed. A sold out crowd had dwindled to a crowd of 16000+ die hard fans. No one sat and everyone cheered, even when the rain began again. It was energy like I had never experienced before. Crazy and wild, cold and wet fans all there for the love of the game... so very cool. The Riders themselves were energized by it and played like it... The highlights for me were little things... seeing GM Eric Tillman out in the rain, waving the rider flag, cheering his team on to victory, a soaking wet gopher still giving %110 when his team scored, even though the fire works were dead. A soaked to the bone vendor who was cheerful enough to sell warm burgers for a $1 during the power outage and come back and ask you how they were. And when it was all said and done and the Riders had won, as we were leaving our seats, soaked and chilled to the bone, we looked back and saw Riders and Eskimos alike on taking a knee in center field in the poring rain to Thank God for a game well played and no serious injuries. The rain may not have been the weather of choice but it will leave me with memories that otherwise I never would have had. It was an amazing night...